In Part 1, we showed how the email channel is completely ineffective as a social medium. Today, let’s review ways this banner ad's grammatical error could have been avoided in the first place.
Mo’ Ads, Mo’ Mistakes
Good for D&H that it likes online display ads so much – it likely finds them to be an effective use of marketing investment. But because banner ads are so simple to create and deploy, it can lead to a rather dispassionate “bang a new one out every week” mentality.
Do you have the proper amount of resources, or has everything turned into a rush job? Where a person can’t even proof his or her own work?
If so, cut ad production in half. Run each campaign twice as long. Trust us, customers won’t complain.
There’s A U In Quality
No matter how small the marketing department is, even how small your whole business might be, there really is no excuse for not QA’ing all final marketing communications. You probably test the living hell out of the products and services you sell – so consider every marketing touch point just one more product or service. Get someone else to review it before it goes out the door.
Oh, and make sure the person QA’ing your work has ticked the “check grammar” box. Yes, those green squiggly lines are annoying, but would you rather be a little annoyed or hugely embarrassed?
Fire In The Hole
Next time something like this happens in your company or agency, fire someone. Nothing gets everyone else’s attention like a good sacking. Especially when it’s done mainly to get everyone else’s attention.
Contact Us, Really
Try something wacky. Set up a contact form on your website specifically for feedback on marketing communications (“Tell us what you think about our advertising”). Also, make the email addresses of one or two people in Marketing prominent in the “Contact Us” section.
And then, thank people for going out of their way to give you feedback.
Make them feel, you know, a part of it.
